Viewing: Chronic Illness and Pain
May 30, 2017
How to Live Life in Spite of Chronic Pain and Fatigue
How do you explain chronic, debilitating fatigue to a world that wakes up well-rested? How do you explain sickness and limitations being the norm to a people who’ve only known health and limitless living? Can you? I remember (quite woefully, now) before the hostile takeover when sickness was still something I could hide, push beyond for the most part, I... Read morePosted in Chronic Illness and Pain, Chronic Life | By Stacey Philpot
March 20, 2017
The Powerful Connection between Pain and Hope
As an Occupational Therapist, I deal with other people’s pain daily. As soon as the introductions are over, I ask about pain levels. “Do you hurt anywhere? On a scale of one-to-ten, how much pain are you in? Describe your pain.” Most people I encounter are in some kind of pain, so much so that I sometimes become numb to... Read morePosted in Chronic Illness and Pain | By Stacey Philpot
August 11, 2016
Licking the (Yummy) Filling of an Oreo Sandwich Cookie
Out of all that happened this past week, three things stand out: 1) I had to take my car into the repair shop for the nth time this month, due to the inadvisability of driving with the engine light on, 2) My husband and I watched a gorgeous sunset (from our kayaks) across a beautiful little private lake during our... Read morePosted in Chronic Illness and Pain, chronic illness; support, Chronic Life, Faith, Rheumatoid Arthritis | By Stacey Philpot
March 27, 2016
March Madness, Chronic Illness and Unpredictability
March madness isn’t a thing I would know about if it wasn’t for my oldest, Hayden. But brackets are the air he breathes all month long. It’s important to him that I fill out brackets for him to track and talk smack about. Out of my great love for him, I oblige. Knowing nothing about the teams, I pick based... Read morePosted in Chronic Illness and Pain, Chronic illness and relationships, Chronic Life | By Stacey Philpot
March 10, 2016
God Saw This Day
For most of us, life exists in the before and after. Before the call and after, before the doctor ushered us from the room and gave us the news and after before the ultrasound silenced the room with it’s stillness and after, before the text from the other woman came across his phone and after, before the crash of metal and... Read morePosted in Chronic Illness and anxiety, Chronic Illness and Diagnosis, Chronic Illness and Pain, Chronic illness and relationships, Faith, Love, Marriage | By Stacey Philpot
January 21, 2016
The Journey to Finding Help
I have hereditary Fibromyalgia, but for most of my life, I didn’t know that. I had been to many doctors. None of them knew what was wrong. I presented with different symptoms at different times, but one thing remained the same— I was always in pain. I have had numerous hospital stays, and terribly painful tests run to no avail.... Read morePosted in Chronic Illness and Diagnosis, Chronic Illness and Pain, chronic illness; support, Physicians | By Stacey Philpot
January 13, 2016
Fighting With the Chronically Ill
Anita I remember the first time I heard about chronic illness. Although I didn’t fully understand what chronic illness was or had never even heard the term, my first memory of it was called fibromyalgia and it sunk teeth deep into my mother in law’s body. She was very energetic. She was accustomed and happy to do everything in and... Read morePosted in Caregivers, Chronic Illness and Diagnosis, Chronic Illness and Pain, Chronic illness and relationships, chronic illness; support | By Stacey Philpot
November 29, 2015
When You’re Out of Spoons
If you are familiar with the impending, looming sense of dread heaped upon you at the mere mention of one more stop on the way home, you might be a spoonie. If you have ever cried upon being asked “Are we going anywhere today?” by your children, you might be a spoonie. If you have ever eyeballed the distance between... Read morePosted in Chronic Illness and Pain, Chronic illness and relationships, chronic illness; support | By Stacey Philpot
November 21, 2015
5 Tips For Drowning Pride
There are few times when I feel as cool as I do when I’m in the pool getting shown up by the little old ladies at physical therapy. (And no, I’m not talking about temperature). It usually goes something like this. To Little Old Lady #1: You do three reps of twelve. To Stacey: You do one rep of ten.... Read morePosted in Chronic Illness and body image, Chronic Illness and Pain, Chronic illness and relationships, chronic illness; support | By Stacey Philpot
November 1, 2015
Invisible Pain
I was driving my son to his Dad’s, or at least attempting to. But there was this hatchet lodged behind my right eye. Pain radiated throughout the right side of my face creating an increasing gurgling in my stomach until I finally pulled into the gas station and said, “I don’t think I can do this.” “Do what?” my son... Read morePosted in Chronic Illness and Pain, Chronic illness and relationships, chronic illness; support | By Stacey Philpot